Three men hurt by woman's 'crazy reversing' car in Orewa

A young men is helped by ambulance staff in the Orewa city centre. Photo / Supplied

Two men were left bleeding and flung onto the ground after a woman allegedly drove her car wildly in Orewa in north Auckland.

Witnesses heard a series of crashes before rushing from shops this afternoon to find two young men injured and a car reversing out of the Hilary Square car park.

A third man was also hit, with locals rallying to attend to the injured men's wounds after the driver allegedly took off at speed.

The woman had reportedly earlier assaulted a man in a family-harm incident before attempting to reverse her car out and leave, a police spokeswoman said.

"As she was doing so, she collided with a man who was also known to her," the spokeswoman said.

"Her vehicle then collided with two members of the public, who fortunately were not seriously hurt."

Police are yet to locate the woman.

St John ambulance teams were called to the scene at 3.09pm and took three patients to hospital with moderate injuries.

A nearby office worker, who didn't want to be named, said she was surprised no one was seriously hurt.

"It is a parking area. So we are lucky no one was killed because if other people had been there with their kids or putting something in the boot of their car, then it would have been a lot worse."

She had earlier heard a bang, followed by screaming and a woman's voice shouting "what the f*** are you doing".

Hearing more bangs, she rushed out and saw one man, who looked like he was in his early 20s, lying on the ground with his head bleeding. Plastic from shattered car headlights lay about him.

Another man was getting back to his feet. He had been holding his phone, filming the incident, and the office worker said she heard him saying: "she drove the car at us, she drove the car at us."

A third man "must have hit the ground as well because his arms and his hands were all cut", she said.

A hairdresser at a nearby store first noticed the incident when she saw the woman reversing onto Florence Av from the Hilary Square car park.

She said the woman "crazy reversed" at speed close to a pedestrian crossing, before stopping a moment and getting out of the car to try to close a door.

"But because the door was all buckled, she couldn't close it, so she drove off with the car door open ... at rapid speed," she said.

"I couldn't believe someone would hit someone and drive away."

The woman and her colleagues were among a throng of locals calling the ambulance and police, and rushing in to help the injured men.

The man with the worst injuries lay on the ground for a few minutes before standing up.

He had a swollen jaw, cut above his eye and grazing on his head and neck, the hairdresser said.

Another man had a badly cut finger that was bleeding.

The officer worker said she thought the injured men had been part of a group of about six people, who all looked to be aged in their early 20s and included another woman.

All of them were in shock.

The office worker also called police before noticing an elderly woman, aged 82, who had witnessed the incident.

"She was looking really shocked, so I grabbed her and took her into the office to look after her, she was not in a very good way, having seen it happen."

She spent more than an hour with the elderly woman, who was in tears and so shaken she couldn't drive.

A nearby restaurant owner also heard bangs and rushed outside. He said his car had been one of those hit, receiving damage to its bumper and boot.